2013-14 NFL Features

Super Bowl XLVIII was billed as a matchup between the NFL's best squads, the record-setting offense of the Denver Broncos squaring off against the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom. What many thought would be an entertaining championship tilt instead became a route for the Seahawks.

The carnage began just 12 seconds into the game, when an errant exchange between Peyton Manning and center Manny Ramirez resulted in a safety. The Seahawks then piled it on throughout the first half, including a Manning interception returned for a touchdown by eventual MVP Malcolm Smith, to lead 22-0 at the break.

The second half began with a Percy Harvin 87-yard kickoff return to increase the score to 29-0 in the Seahawks' favor. Any remote hope of a Denver comeback was squashed with nearly 30 minutes of football yet to play. The Seahawks ultimately prevailed 43-8, tied for the third-largest margin of victory in Super Bowl history and the largest by an underdog.

Since the Broncos proved no match for Seattle, we utilized our NFL simulation engine to find a team capable of hanging with the Seahawks. How would the Legion of Boom fare against the best defenses in NFL history? We simulated the Seahawks in head-to-head matchups with the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. Each matchup was "played" 1,001 times. Check out how the Seahawks performed:

Only the Bears, which allowed 12.4 points per game during the 1985 season, were able to dethrone the Seahawks. The 2000 Ravens proved no match, while the Steel Curtain was competitive, but ultimately unable to hang with the Seahawks.

Next, we again deployed our NFL simulation engine to play a round-robin tournament in which the 2013 Seahawks and each of the 47 prior Super Bowl champions "played" 101 games against every opponent. We ranked each team by their win percentage in the tournament.

The Seahawks won 51.2 percent of their games, ranking 19th out of 48 teams. Surprisingly, their 23 points allowed ranked only 21st. The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaged the fewest points-against in the simulation.

With Super Bowl XLVIII being your last taste of football for the next seven months, WhatIfSports.com is here with your daily fix. Create your ultimate Super Bowl roster using our Dream Team feature. Take that roster and simulate it against ANY TEAM IN NFL HISTORY using our NFL SimMatchup tool.